As if moving the double bass around in day-to-day life wasn't already inconvenient enough, if you've ever tried flying with one, you know how awful things can really be. I've had a lot of experience flying with my bass over the past few years, travelling mostly between Winnipeg and the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal triangle, and all of my trips have been successful, so I thought I'd share a few tips and tricks I've picked up along the way for making this awful ritual as straightforward as possible. My flight case is a circa 2006 David Gage featherweight 7/8ths case (the one with expandable air bladders on the inside).
First off, it's important to recognize that the baggage restrictions of our two major airlines - WestJet and Air Canada - are not similar when it comes to size restrictions. WestJet advertises that they will take canoes as checked baggage, whereas Air Canada restricts anything larger than a bike box to their freight services. This is not a huge issue for me, since Air Canada's practices of overbooking flights and bumping people regularly from their flights has already turned me off of their company. However, you might notice that Air Canada is very friendly towards other instruments: most fly for free as carry-ons, and cellos can have their own seat purchased at a 50% discount (though they seem to punish anyone who does this by keeping them on hold over the phone for hours). The only reason I can see for this difference in policies between the two airlines has to do with their plane fleets: WestJet almost exclusively flies 737's or 767's, with the occasional Q400 turboprop thrown in the mix for short-haul flights (where you'd probably prefer to drive anyways); whereas Air Canada has a smorgasbord of planes that they seem to use interchangeably, some of them being quite small. In any case, it's best that if you want to fly with your bass, you should get used to paying around $600 each way for AC Freight, or simply become a WestJetter.
I will be clear here: I have been successful at checking my bass on to every WestJet flight I have tried to get it on, but I have never tried to check it on a flight where a Q400 was being used - that doesn't mean it wouldn't work, but it's possible that the cargo doors and space for the Q400 are smaller than the 737 or 767, and that the bass flight case wouldn't fit. If anyone has experience with that, please let me know!
So here are the things that I do to make this as smooth as possible:
Insure your instrument, and your case!
Smile. Don't go in to this with a bad attitude. Airport staff, from what I can see, are treated worse than servers at dive bars, and the last thing they want is some grouchy person getting in line with "the most gigantic guitar" they've ever seen being mean to them. Turn your charm up as high as it possibly goes, smile lots, and approach this from a standpoint of trying to solve a problem together, rather than forcing your bass on the airline because they should take it.
Always leave your old baggage tags from your last trip on the flight case. When a check-in person sees this, it is a flag for them that this is in fact possible because it's obviously flown before.
Bring a schematic showing the dimensions and weight of your flight trunk with you. I printed mine off from David Gage's website, and crossed out everything except the lightest and smallest case there (the 3/4 featherweight trunk). You do not want them to make you lift the flight case on the scale, and you don't want them to take out a tape measure to check the dimensions - and in my experience, the check-in people don't want to do those things either! So show them this diagram with a smile, and all will be good. I've actually gotten through most times without paying overweight charges, since it says "48lbs" right on there. (Yes, I know that doesn't include the weight of the bass)
Avoid the check-in altogether! This is my favourite trick. These days, you can pay for your bags in advance. Take your bass as non-threateningly as possible into the airport - I try to roll it as low to the ground as I can, and if I carry it, pretend that it's super-light and like a guitar. Proceed straight to the self-check-in kiosk and print your baggage tags. Stick some fragile stickers in there as well, then doing your best to avoid over-zealous airline employees, go straight for the oversize belt. The security people there will get you to open the bass case, will probably take an explosives swab, then get you to lift it on to the belt and away it goes. No mess, no problems.
Note that this only works in some airports: Winnipeg, Toronto terminal 3, and Montreal all have large new oversize belts that go straight down with no left/right turns to the baggage handlers. Ottawa requires a baggage handler to come up and take the bass from you, so you have to go talk to an airline representative at check-in. Vancouver seems to have their bag drop and oversize set up behind a wall of airline reps, so you'll probably have to go through them there as well. I'm not sure about Calgary or other major airports, so more info on those would be appreciated!
Get your loyalty program working for you. WestJet has a great Teal-Silver-Gold status system. Sign up for it, and every once in a while they have fast-track promotions. At the right time, a $500 flight can propel you in to Gold Tier status which comes with two free checked bags, upgrade and lounge vouchers, and most importantly, a whole lot of respect from the people checking you in. To them, that status means that you fly a lot, possibly with your bass, and that is usually enough for them not to give you a hard time, and in my case, I've only been charged for checking the bass twice in the past four years/dozen flights.
Sit by the window overlooking the baggage belt (20F on my last flight), and take a video. You'll have to either buy a seat ahead of time, or check in to your flight as soon as you possibly can, but this is a good thing to do just in case something happens to your bass, for insurance or claims purposes. My bass has usually gone in the back end of the plane, on the starboard (right) side, around aisle 20.
Use this video I took in case no one believes you that it will fit.
When you get your bass from the oversize baggage belt, open it immediately and take pictures of any damage, check if everything is there, and see if it's generally in the same tuning you left it at (I usually give the pegs one full turn flat before packing). The bass might be very cold - the inside of my bass case has gotten as low as -10C after a flight to Montreal in March - in which case you should leave the case open and let it warm up a bit before continuing (cold wood is brittle). Also note any new scuffs or damage on the case (the scuffs happen fast and usually are totally fine).
Don't forget to be nice and thank everyone, and encourage them to put a solid policy about double basses on their website. It's a small world. I've run into the same people at airports several times and they remember me by the flight case - it's always nice to run into a familiar and friendly face. The more airline reps get on board with how easy it is to actually just check a bass in, the better it will be for everyone. Get as friendly as you can with the people there, post pictures to WestJet's twitter about how awesome it is that they accept basses, generally do whatever it takes to make it easy for the next person who tries to travel with a bass.
So there you have it, a few tips for airline bass travel. If you have more, or corrections, or would like to share your own experiences, please leave a comment below. I'll try to update this page with more (better) pictures, as well as any other things that come up or come to mind. Please also remember that there are lots of other solutions for travelling with a bass - driving is a favourite, but also getting a removable neck (Mario Lamarre does the best job at this I've seen) can open up a world of possibilities with different airlines.